After watching 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows (you can watch the show for free on Tubi), I sat back and took a deep breath. Whew! That was an amazing ride full of nostalgia, sadness (for those cast members who have passed away), and great joy.
When I saw a video on TikTok about Dark Shadows, I felt an urgent desire to see the show again that I loved as a child. But what scared me when I was younger became something different for me as an adult. I realized why I loved the show and the characters, but I also recognized all the miscues and mistakes that I never caught when I was young.
The Beginning
The first episode begins at a railway station. A young woman named Victoria Winters (Alexandra Isles) arrives in the town of Collinsport, Maine, to take on the role of governess at Collinwood estate. On that same train is a young man named Burke Devlin (Mitchell Ryan) who is returning to Collinsport after being away for some time. They get to know one another briefly, and Burke suggests that he has unfinished business in town.
The show starts off in stark black and white episodes, and we get introduced to a cast of characters headed by legendary actress Joan Bennet, who plays matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. She is mother of Carolyn (Nancy Barrett) and aunt to David Collins (David Henesy) who is the son of her brother Roger (Louis Edmonds). Victoria has been hired to be David's governess.
A Typical Soap Opera
DS was a typical soap opera like the others that were on TV at that time. There was some intrigue regarding Carolyn's long missing father, which included Jason McGuire (played with insidious glee by Dennis Patrick) blackmailing Liz. There was wild child Carolyn dancing late at night at the Blue Whale, and the difficulties Victoria has with teaching David. There was nothing to suggest that the show would suddenly become a daytime television juggernaut, but that would all change in episode 210.
The Arrival of Barnabas Collins
Ne'er-do-well Willie Loomis (played by the excellent John Karlen) is always in need of money, and decides to search a tomb in the Collins' graveyard. in hopes of finding treasure. He stumbles upon a secret room, wherein he finds a chained coffin. Thinking someone was trying to protect their jewels and gold and not thinking that there was something inside not meant to get out, Willie breaks the chains and opens the coffin. A hand with a distinctive ring and frilly sleeve cuff grabs Willie by the neck, and the episode ends,
Barnabas Collins (the amazing Jonathan Frid) appears in the next episode as a vampire who has spent 172 years trapped in that coffin. He takes Willie's blood and makes him his servant. He will have Willie get him acclimated to the world of 1967, and eventually Barnabas will arrive at the Collins' mansion and introduce himself as a long lost cousin from England.
Series on the Verge of Cancellation
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| The main cast of 'Dark Shadows' |
Series creator Dan Curtis was told that his show was going to be cancelled due to weak ratings. Curtis decided to bring in a vampire because he always wanted to direct a vampire movie, so instead he put the vampire into his TV show and it became a sensation. Of course, the inclusion of a vampire opened the door for more supernatural elements, and that meant Barnabas would have company over the course of over 1000 more episodes.
I had forgotten many of the details from watching the show as a kid. Besides the scary, dark content, there were the flubbed lines, the shadows of boom mikes, noises off screen, shadows of people on the set, and many other things that usually happen on live shows. Happily, these little bumps in the road are what makes DS so entertaining now in a world where everything is CGI and dubbed and remastered.
Horror in the Afternoon
Witches, warlocks, other vampires, and werewolves came into the series. There was even the creation of Adam storyline, which borrowed heavily from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Time travel enabled trips back to 1795 – when Barnabas was a young man before he turned into a vampire) and 1897 – when the very popular Quentin Collins (David Selby) was introduced. These sequences were what I remember most from childhood, but watching the series again has brought me great pleasure – as much as meeting an old friend I hadn't seen for decades.
One Disappointment
One thing I didn't remember and now find disappointing as an adult was that the series ended in the past. When Barnabas and Dr, Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) discover the destruction of the Collins family in the future, they go back to 1840 to stop ghost Gerard Styles (James Storm) from doing something in that time to cause the destruction.
After successfully stopping Styles, Barnabas and Julia come back to the future and find that everything is okay, but we are only there briefly and then go back to the parallel time of 1840-41 where the series ends.
I just found it unfortunate that the show didn't return to 1970 and let us see how our original characters were doing before the show ended. Perhaps that is why I stopped watching the show as a kid because I no longer cared about these people in the past.
The Verdict
Watching the whole series was rather daunting but overly rewarding. It is apparent why the series became so popular, and Barnabas set the stage for vampires that would come after him. Gone was the frightening and totally evil vampire. Barnabas was a reluctant vampire who also was a hopeless romantic, in love with someone across the centuries.
I highly recommend Dark Shadows if you want to see the a nostalgic gem, enjoy horror themes, and want to be entertained and delighted.
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